Red ribbands group'd with aprons blue,
Curtsies, scrapes, nods, winks, smiles, and frowns,
Lords, milk-maids, dutchesses, and clowns,
All in their various dishabille!"
The pleasant gardens alluded to possessed, and still possess, greater attraction than any others in the vicinity of London; it is therefore by no means wonderful that once in an age they became the scene of attraction; but that noblemen, and men and women of fashion should, by any of the strange mutations of caprice, ever enter the booths of Bartholomew Fair, is to me astonishing. That they did is beyond a doubt; and even Cibber, Griffiths, Bullock, and Hallam, found it worth their while to expend large sums in erecting magnificent booths for their reception. Those prepared in August 1733 for the performance of Tamerlane, the Miser, the Ridotto al fresco, &c. had gilt boxes and other rich decorations, and were lighted by candles placed in glass lustres. A considerable number of gentlemen, tradesmen, and others, went in procession from the Bedford-arms to honour the commencement of the entertainments.
Some absurd persons were at the expence in October the same year of procuring a Holland
smock, a cap, clocked stockings and laced shoes, which they offered as prizes to any four women who would run for them at three o'clock in the afternoon in Pall-Mall. The race attracted an amazing number of persons, who filled the streets, the window's, and balconies. The sport attendant on this curious method of killing time induced Mr. Rawlings, high Constable of Westminster, resident in Pall-Mall, to propose a laced hat as a prize to be run for by five men, which appears to have produced much mirth to the projector; but the mob, ever upon the watch to gratify their propensity for riot and mischief, committed so many excesses, that the sedate inhabitants of the neighbourhood found it necessary to apply to the Magistrates for protection, who issued precepts to prevent future races, directed to the very man most active in promoting them.
Senesino, the celebrated Italian performer, is said to have hired the Theatre in Lincoln's-inn-fields for the winter of 1733-4 as an Opera-house.
It is one of the singularities attendant on the present system of Theatrical amusements, that certain actors performing under a patent are gentlemen and ladies of merit, respectability, and fashion; but, leaving the magic circle, and acting for any other person than a patentee, they instantly become rogues and vagabonds . It was the same in 1733, when Messrs. Rich, Highmore, and others, patentees of Drury-lane and Covent-garden
Theatres, issued a summons against a player of each of the companies employed by Giffard of Goodman's-fields, and Mills of the Haymarket. A hearing of this momentous affair commenced in November before Sir Thomas Clarges and other Justices at the vestry-room of the parish of St. George Hanover-square, in order to decide whether the Act of the 12th of Queen Anne constituted persons acting without the authority of a patent vagrants , or rogues and vagabonds . After much dispute between the counsel of both parties, Sir Thomas declared with great impartiality that the summons ought to have been worded rogues and vagabonds , in strict conformity with the words of the Statute, instead of vagrants ; that it was therefore nugatory; and as the persons implicated were reputable residents, he declined issuing another. By this decision the two Theatres were in some measure sanctioned by authority, though the performers certainly came within the meaning of the Law, which is too harsh and monopolizing, to the great injury of genuine merit thus denied the means of emulation; but the matter did not end as Sir Thomas Clarges wished, as will appear from the following letter addressed to "Mr. John Mills, and the rest of the persons acting at the Theatre in the Haymarket, lately belonging to the Theatres at Drury-lane and Covent-garden:"